A Note from the Chris’

3…2…1…Happy New Year!

The countdown to the end of the year is always bitter sweet for me. Coincidently it is also the countdown to the end of my birthday but that’s not necessarily what I’m referring to. Well…maybe a bit.

It gives us all an opportunity to look back on the year and assess. For WBC it was a year of challenging growth. Yes, sales is part of this, but we grew in many ways. Some more obvious than others. The types of growth that go unnoticed in large by people outside of the WBC staff are things like the work we’ve put in to develop a strong company culture, a more defined management structure and standards of practice for all areas of the business. We’ve not necessarily fully implemented these projects that we’re working on, but it’s certainly been a year where we’ve been working hard to strengthen the foundation for future growth. We plan to stand by our culture and other defined pillars of our organisation for many years to come and we’re really happy with the direction they’re taking.

As we roll into 2018, I think our team are looking on with nervous excitement. It’s a year that is filled with opportunity for us, new partnerships and working relationships, new members of our team, further geographical reach and increased efficiencies….but will all the hard work that we’ve been doing to make all this possible be enough?

Sometimes we fail, sometimes we succeed, and regardless of the result, I am confident that the team we have take pride in their work and will be doing what they can to better our beer, better ourselves and make 2018 an outright success.

….Now back to my birthday

Happy New Year everyone!

Chris Thompson & Chris Thompson

Brewery News

KLR93 in a Store Near You

Thanks to customer support and a necessity to share this increasingly popular beer with the rest of the province, KLR93 is now available in more Beer Stores and grocery stores across Ontario. If you are looking to get this delicious brew at your local shop check out this map to help you find out where it is.

Food Drive

We would like to thank all those who took advantage of this month’s food drive special. For the month of December we offered a pint on us for any customer who brought in 5 or more canned goods to donate to our local food bank. Thanks to those customers, we are able to deliver hundreds of items to keep people fed. Cheers to you all!

Movember Winners

No its not Movember anymore. However, we do have some honourable mentions from both our staff and customer contests. Marc Lapierre was the lucky winner of our Movember prize this year. Thanks to his donation his name was picked and he enjoyed picking out one of our WBC plaids. In addition, we ran our own little healthy competition to see which staff member could raise the most for the Movember campaign and wouldn’t you know it? It was the boss man himself. #rigged

Beer 101

And the Year is Done

By Head Brewer Sean

What a year we had in 2017. We finished the installation of our 35 hectolitre system, we added in 4 more fermenters to triple our capacity, our brew and packaging staff doubled from the year before with no end in sight for this summer.

I had the pleasure of running this 35hl brewery. No small feat, but I was more than happy to take on that stressful excitement. We have had some ups and downs over the year but have made great strides to make 2018 our best year yet.

We were able to bring all of our main brands to cans and most of our seasonals to 500ml bottles. We had a great success with our first beer style brewed at Lakeside, “Straight Outta Cobden”, and another great success with our first annual Golden Ticket brewed with the winner of the National Capital Homebrew Competition. We’ll be starting the new Golden Ticket in the spring which will be an Old Ale this year. We hope to find some barrels to age it in. I may have even brewed a new session IPA at the end of 2017. *wink wink

With the 12 beers of Christmas being a huge hit again with over 450 cases sold, December was a great end to the year. And that wouldn’t have happened without everyone of you being passionate about craft beer and supporting WBC in everything new and great that happened this year. We have a lot more exciting things to come in 2018 and we are showing no signs of slowing down. Just the way I like it…. well maybe a break here and there wouldn’t hurt.

I must thank everyone reading for caring about this blog as it hasn’t been easy to write something every month. But I think we had some great articles throughout the year. Thanks again and all the best in the new year!

Cooking with Beer

Jack’s Fudge

By Sous Chef Ben

Best Paired with Jack Frost’s Demise

Ingredients

1/2 pound semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cans of condensed milk

2 cups of Jack Frost’s Demise Chocolate Wintergreen Porter

8 strips of bacon, well done and finely chopped

Method

Melt chocolate in double boiler. Add milk, beer, and bacon. It will seize but keep it on the heat and stir.

Continue melting and stirring until smooth. Pour mixture into greased pan and chill.

Cut chilled fudge into bite size pieces or leave it next to a knife to grab a real slice whenever you like.

Events

Brewers Dinner

January 31st

Our last two dinners have been such a success that we decided to keep the good times rolling. Menu coming soon.

Pub Quiz Night

Every Monday at 7pm

Want to challenge yourself, your friends, complete strangers? Then come on down to pub quiz night every Monday at the Lakeside Brew Pub in Cobden. $2 per person and the winning team gets it all. Call 613 -646-0101 to book your reservation.

Open Mic Night

Every Thursday at 7pm

Open Mic Night is still going strong and we hope to be your spot for Thursday night entertainment throughout this long cold Winter. Stop in to play or sit back and enjoy the tunes. Call 613-646-0101 to book your reservation.

Questions from Friends

Jackson asked:

What is the hardest beer you’ve ever had to brew?

We answered (or rather, Sean did):

The hardest beer I’ve ever brewed at WBC whas my very first seasonal recipe. It was a Helles Bock. It was one of the only lagers we ever brewed down at riverside. We did not have a means to keep it cold while fermenting so myself and other staff checked it’s temperature every 4hrs and wheeled the fermenter back and forth from the fermentation room to keg fridge. This took 7 days to finish.

We want to answer your questions about anything from the beer, the brewery, the boys or whatever else is on your mind. Due to the high volume of questions though, we won’t be able to post every one, but keep your eyes peeled in case yours makes it to the front page.

If your question does get picked you will become the proud owner of a swag bag full of WBC goodies. So ask away!

*Questions from Friends is for general questions in the areas listed above. For personal inquiries please use thebreweryboys@whitewaterbeer.ca

Ho Ho Ho

The gifting season is upon us, and at Whitewater Brewing Co. we want to make sure that your holiday shopping is as stress-free as possible. That’s why we’ve put together this gift guide that includes a variety of gift packs made special for the holidays. These gifts are sure to please the craft beer lover on your list!

The perfect gift for the person on your list that likes to drink their beer 6oz at a time. 😉 This gift pack includes 4 x 473ml cans (your choice) and a locally made sample paddle with 4 x 6oz glasses wrapped in a WBC bag.

Whether you have a foodie, beer aficionado, or WBC gear lover on your list our gift certificate is sure to please. Gift Certificates can be used in our Bottle Shops or Brew Pubs. Give the gift of local.